1. Hello everyone. Welcome to Edie’s First Fireside Chat. I’m a moderator for tonight’s session. (<----welcome to my friend Ami!----listen to her, she's smart and will protect us from ourselves). A few things before we start: 2. Sign in to the chat. You can use your Facebook account info or create an account with your email address. You can also sign in as a guest and the chatroll will assign you a guest username. 3. Once you sign in, introduce yourself to us, tell us where your from, the name of your blog–if you have one, and whatever else you want to tell us about yourself. 4. To contribute your opinions and ideas to this chat just enter your text into the text box at the bottom of the chat area and press "Enter" on your keyboard. You should see your comment appear instantly in chat. 5. If you would like to respond to an individuals' comment, start your text with "@ individual name" like "@edie". If the comment is for everyone, no @ tag is needed. 6. To send a private message, click the status icon next the user's name, and click "Send Private Message". We want to keep the chat interactive, so please only use private messages for technical assistance. You can send tech questions privately to "ami_d", but please send all questions to other chat users publicly. 7. Before starting the chat session I would just like to remind you all to be polite and to respect one another's opinions. Please refrain from using any profanity or from ad hominem attacks. In short, follow the golden rule and we're sure to have a jolly good time. (I said that, not Ami. She probably doesn't say 'jolly good time' and I can't rightly blame her.) 8. Users who do not respect the rules or who are disruptive to the chat will receive a warning and will then be banned if negative behavior continues. (I can only imagine this scenario if my cousin JamieKnoxville joins in. She'll be the one signed in as Loretta Lynn using a lot of asterisks. Perhaps this will be over before she gets wind of it:) ) 9. We are working on making a transcript of the chat available but are unsure at this time if this will be an option. 10. Most importantly, have fun! Don't be afraid to jump in and contribute, even if it's just an "amen" or " i totally agree" comment to get your feet wet. Chat is fueled by your contributions and the discussion will be enriched by a variety of opinions. Please forgive us for questions or comments that might go unnoticed or unanswered in the chat. We will make every effort to answer them in the post below this one within the next few days if we miss them or run out of time tonight. I was mistaken about the number of people that can 'chat' at one time. It's 100 instead of 50. Our heads may be spinning if that many actually sign in! The chat will go live a few minutes before 7 in this post. See you there! If we blow up the internet, it was nice knowing you...... [chatroll width='700' height='600' id='RZKC25v5tXK' name='fireside-chat-at-life-in-grace-3-6-11' apikey='lcyhvjdj7mghh1uv']